Forces and Torques Near to Impact in the Golf Swing

TL;DR

This paper models the golf swing near impact as a double pendulum, revealing a robust negative force couple that influences club path curvature and speed, highlighting a trade-off between distance and control.

Contribution

It introduces a physics-based model of the golf swing near impact, demonstrating the role of a negative force couple in controlling club path and speed.

Findings

Negative force couple is a robust feature of the model.

Negative couple helps maintain a larger radius of curvature.

Presence of negative couple affects club speed and swing control.

Abstract

Motivated by MacKenzie's observation of a negative force couple near to impact, this paper explores a model for how the golf club moves near to impact. It assumes the golf club is moving as the distal arm of a double pendulum. At impact the club head is moving straight down the target line, at its maximum speed, on a path with a specified radius of curvature. From this model the forces and torques required to move the club near to impact are calculated. The negative couple near to impact is a robust feature of this model, balancing the torque associated with the force that drives the center of mass of the golf club. The negative couple allows the golfer to maintain a larger radius of curvature of the path of the club head as it moves through impact. Because the negative couple can also serve to reduce the rotational speed of the club, the presence of a negative couple at impact in the golf swing manifests a trade between distance and direction.